Sarah Butland's Blog, page 18

Journey – That’s What It’s All About?

Today is brought to you by the letter J in the A to Z Challenge and the word had to be “Journey”. No, not the band though they are amazing, too –

Journey is defined as “an act of traveling from one place to another” but it’s more than that. A lifelong journey consists of becoming true to yourself and diving deep to find out who you really are. It’s often said that the journey is more important than the destination and in many ways I do believe that as the journey makes you stronger, more aware and insightful, ensuring you see important sights and adjusting your path along the way.

As Journey says in the video I shared for this post – it’s important not to stop believing in whatever journey you’re on even if the destination always seems so far away.

My personal journey started in a foster home but as a “real” child and I was always so confused by that beginning. While trying to blend in and be just like all of my foster siblings I was told repeatedly that I was special because I didn’t have it rough, living with my parents, and being treated better as a result. I certainly didn’t see it that way and struggled to see myself through everyone else’s eyes, so much so I found it difficult to see my own place through my own eyes.

I started to write then, putting down on paper the darkness and muddled thoughts I struggled with hoping that in doing so I could find some clarity and bring forth my light. Poetry was my first addiction, then I expanded into short stories and growing into a career filled with writing opportunities of all kinds.

We are all on our own journeys and each one is right in many ways, it’s unique and special to each one of us and , while we do our best to blend in and stay off the radar sometimes it is best to stand up and out, being creative and amazing on our own path.

We all need to come together and light the paths of each other while we navigate this crazy world.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

author of Through the Eyes of a Teenager, Life Imitated, Being Grateful, Being Thankful and more

Imagination Captured

In this post of the A to Z Challenge I pondered using many great words that start with the letter i as there are many of them – inspired, incredible, independence, interruptions and the list goes on but I thought Imagination Captured is perfect.

The name/ theme of my blog, Imagination Captured is my tag line as I always remember being creative in all I did. Watching Mr Dress-Up as a child I’d love following along with his crafts but taking them steps further and creating long after the show was over. I didn’t have much but then really didn’t need much as I could make something out of a few odds and ends as long as I had construction paper and some time. As a child time was something I had a lot of.

Mostly I’d spend my time after school wandering the woods behind my house by myself. My mother once told me I got lost as a very young girl and was found just sitting under a tree waiting for someone to come. I do remember often walking or even sitting and imagining the best poems but forgetting them as soon as the hustle of life interrupted. I finally learned to take a notebook with me to write them down but they never seemed to be quite as genius when I did.

Imagination Captured is just who I am as I love spinning a tale no matter the topic, hence my writing in all genres including children, poetry, non-fiction and fiction. This allows me the freedom I love to take advantage of and just enjoy the process of creating. I don’t have much time for construction paper and glue anymore but paper and pen or a laptop will do.

What have you most recently imagined?

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

author of Sending You Sammy, Life Imitated, I Saw the Forest and more!

Happily Hypnotizing

Writing for me is simply hypnotizing. The whole world can be spinning, melting or in chaos and I would be happily spinning a tale of wonder, oblivious to it all.

With the A to Z Challenge happening amidst many other projects, H had to be for hypnotizing as life can be a whirlwind when I have the time to sit and listen. Like many other writers hesitantly admit, when I listen long enough I hear my characters tell me the story they need told. Even if I try to plot something out or stay on track, they can come in and shake things up to tell a completely different story than I would have ever expected. Like Blood Day the Short Story was.

Blood Day was written for a contest at the very last minute with a tot playing at my feet. While still being fully aware of my son’s actions my fingers went into a completely different world and scrambled to tell a story I barely recognized in the end. On top of this, the story won first place in the New Brunswick Writer’s Federation contest (and is now available for you to download for free simply by subscribing to my newsletter!).

If you love what you do and don’t put pressure on yourself, magical things can happen so, unlike on a stage with a hypnotist telling me to act certain ways, I, in a way, hypnotize myself and welcome the characters around me to encourage me to type a certain way.

How do you write? Do you hear voices pulling you in one direction or do you plot everything out and stick to it?

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

author of Blood Day the Novella, Arm Farm, Life Imitated

and more

Humbolt Broncos

In the A to Z Challenge schedule tomorrow is set for H and I’ll still get to that but I thought the coincidences were too strong to ingore.

H is for Humbolt, a city in tears right now based on the loss of their Broncos in a car accident this week.

And my chosen word to write about from my monthly writers group is emotional. And now, H is really for today but, to ensure the month of April is complete we have Sunday’s off.

But I had a moment, we all need a moment, we’re all breathing in the horror and tragedy of one accident throughout our nation and beyond.

With my son in love with hockey and just 10 years from likely being on one of these buses going to his own game, recently wearing a green jersey for his team it all becomes too real. No one is to blame as far as I know, things like this just happen and make us humble and honoured to have known such talent in our lives. I heard this morning that one of the deceased was a piano player, too, and his talents on the keys matched or possibly surpassed that of when he was on the ice.

Hug your loved ones extra long today and every day you can.

Humbolt Broncos, like the basketball team from Bathurst, NB (Boys in Red) will forever be remembered.

Sarah

Gigantic Goals

Versus Itty Bitty Ones

Today’s letter is, of course, G in the A to Z Challenge and I could have gone simply with Goals but mine tend to be Gigantic ones. They have always been bigger than I could really fathom or detail, piling on one after the other until I quite honestly burn out.

While I’m a believer of only needing to make small steps to get to the same destination I am admittedly impatient and when it comes to meeting my goals I just want to get there. I want to see signs along the journey, at the very least, to know I’m on the right path with the goals that are in line with who I am.

As far as  I can remember my goals were as follows:

Get married (Check)
Have children (Somewhat check as I have one)
Live through my passion of writing (This is the one I’m mostly struggling with still)

While goals can be relevant to sports and games, to me it’s all about the object of a person’s ambition or effort, their aim or desired result in doing what they love. I also believe if you are setting your objectives too small you’ll achieve them often and get bored of going for them. Then again, setting them bigger and more long term makes me impatient and frustrated when I don’t see fast results.

Maybe I’m not dreaming right? Let me know your goals and if you’ve been achieving them.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

author of Being Grateful, Being Thankful and more

PS:

If you wish to visit other blogs in this bloghop challenge who have incorporated today’s letter into their current post, please click: 

https://goo.gl/gUhYwn

LINK TO DAILY LETTER SPREADSHEET   

Fear of Failure

Today, of course, is brought to you by the letter F in the A to Z Challenge and I wondered if Facebook should be the topic but my fear of failure won out because, unlike Facebook, it’s always been a constant and is for a lot of authors/ writers.

And it’s Friday!! So that’s a wonderful F  to celebrate today but back to business.

Just as I have always been determined to make it as a writer, fear has never left its side. Hearing the doubts of so many, telling me and other authors that it’s just not possible to make a living through writing books is discouraging at times. Other times I let this fear of failure drive my success and push me to find new ways to earn money through my passion.

In life it’s easy to be overcome by the unknown and to just give up on your dreams no matter what they are. It’s so much easier to do what you know, what has worked in the past and has been proven to pay bills than to branch out and try to change things. If we all let fear restrict us we would never leave our houses or meet knew people. Though we likely don’t remember learning to walk it seems natural that it would have terrified us, falling down more than the number of steps we could take at once and possibly hurting ourselves in the process but we didn’t give up. The reward far outweighed the risk as we got back up and tried again, ignoring the bumps and bruises and possible repeat pain felt.

This is the same truth as living life and trying new things. Our daily lives are so boring if we continue to do the same everyday, knowing and trusting in safety just so we know how it ends. As an author, and a reader, I love the suspense of the story so why write or lead a boring one?

When Natalie, the main character in my first novel Arm Farm, came home to find her parents dead she didn’t just succumb to the awful grief she must have felt, she resolved to solve the mystery behind their untimely demise. And Blood Day, the short story I wrote out of fear of not giving myself a chance, actually won first place in the contest! A story very unlike anything I’ve written which made it terrifying to have people read but once they did they demanded more, giving me confidence to look even further within myself to touch on subjects I never thought I could.

If we do something every day that scares us we’ll get bumps, sure, but we’ll also better understand who we are and what we love and the lucky ones who can do this regularly will thrive and be the happiest.

Please let me know what you did today that scared you. Face your fears and thrive!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

author of Blood Day, Arm Farm and more!

Exposure, Energy and Evicting the Need for Excellence

Today’s post, of course, is brought to you by the letter E in the A to Z Challenge and while I did come up with a whole lot of E words I feel these three are enough and most important.

Exposure, while being fully respectable and modest, is what drives an author to having a book that is read. It’s “easy” today to put yourself out there with a blog post or ebook and feel satisfied with being “published” but it’s not as simple as that. While it does feel wonderful to have it built, in a world of so many authors trying their hand at storytelling, readers won’t come easily without exposure and that does include outside of social media.

There’s twitter, Facebook, and all the other sites out there that have become a battleground for actually being seen in. Even if you follow an admired author it doesn’t mean you’ll often see their updates anymore with every changing algorithms and changes to the way they do things. Yes, one can pay for advertising to increase the chances of being seen but when selling a handful of books for $0.99 in the beginning money for marketing is not a hot commodity so I encourage you to share, “love” and spread the news about those you like who are following their passion.

Energy is something we all complain about lacking. Being lazy, being busy and not having time left over for the things we love that are maybe lower on our priority list than say… dishes and laundry. We need to tap into any reserves we possibly have to put forth effort into being ourselves and doing what we love. And with more energy emitted more energy and time will appear – it’s contagious like a smile.

And lastly, but not least, it’s not about being perfect when being creative, in fact it’s quite the opposite. Robots and followers can replicate but creation is about making flaws beautiful and connecting with others who feel the same. I hear too often that people are waiting for just that right moment and for excellence in what they show to the world. I get it, whatever you are showing to the world is more of who you are and it’s the deepest part of you. It’s scary to think someone can see into your soul and judge it based on just a fraction of what you’re worth, then again, if you show no one you won’t connect with like-minded people and shed light on your full magnificence.

So I encourage you to expose yourself by sharing those you love and admire, energize yourself through passion and evict your need for excellence and just start sharing who you are.

Let me know who you are so I can share in your beautiful creative flaws.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

author of Arm Farm, Blood Day and more!

Dedication and Determination

Both are so important so I couldn’t decide (decision is yet another good D topic) which to focus on so I’ll talk about both for this installment of the A to Z Blogging Challenge.

Dedication is something I lack and make up for with determination. The opposite of dedication to me is excuse and I have a lot of them, way too many, but am still always so determined to make something happen so do need to find the right balance. Squeezing in time is not putting myself or writing as a priority and admitting that is definitely the first  and one the most important steps as I feel you can’t solve a problem you don’t believe exists.

I am dedicated to supporting and promoting others, maybe too much so and yet I know what it’s like to have that constant support from just a few friends so do my best. This does take away from the precious time I do have to spend alone though so I stumble and question my long term objectives. Paying it forward is something I’ve always done, to the point it is starting to annoy my husband as I am always buying little things to pass along to friends or  asking for donations to help friends in need. This takes time and effort and when it’s not obvious that it’s reciprocated it can be frustrating.

As long as I can recall I was determined though, not only to make it as a writer but also to find things, including happiness, success and purpose. I have so many poems I wrote in my adolescent years about searching for God or meaning, scribbles and gibberish I was so proud of as I came solely from my soul. While I can now easily find items around the house, I am still searching for the bigger things in life including the definition of my personal success.

This all to say that I am determined to thrive in all ways, including finding the time to dedicate to what it is I love which makes me who I am and have always been. I just need to shine a light on the areas that have gone dark so I can connect and continue to help others who need a spark to ignite their own paths.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

author of Being Grateful, Being Thankful and Cherish Your Treasures plus many more!

Contests and Should You Enter

As you know, I’m participating in the 2018 A to Z Challenge this month so this is my second, and post I should have written long ago.

Contests…

Contests in general are something people either enter or don’t, with the excuse that they never win yet I wonder how they think they will win if they never enter! So I enter a lot – both writing contests and otherwise. Sometimes I’m lucky, often deserving, and sometimes just pure luck, and have one everything from a toque to a cash prize.

It started when I was young with Crayola coloured pencils where they had a black middle so when you coloured with the “proper” colour and sharpened it enough the colour could change to black. I remember the thrill of it all, I was young then and eager to exchange the winning coloured pencil for roller blades only they were out of them when it came time for me to redeem. Instead, I was showered with gifts including a check so was even happier!

The streak, though often on pause, continues still today. A few years ago I entered a local writing contest after hesitating for so long since I had so much on my plate (including a new born) but was encouraged by many people I look up to so went for it. I went in the zone and came up with a story that was unusual for me (Blood Day the Short Story) and was so honoured to be notified that I won!

Then I often enter contests the local radio station and, though they are not always huge, it builds excitement in my entire household and gives me courage to continue entering.

This all to say – if you expect you’ll lose and don’t enter you’ll lose. If you want to win, enter and hope for the best. The more you enter the better your chances so keep at it – writing or otherwise.

Thanks for reading (and entering),

Sarah Butland

author of Being Grateful, Being Thankful and more!

Building an Audience

Blogging for Business is such a long term goal that’s hard to keep in mind but I am inspired by all of you and all of the potential readers so I keep going, sporadically more than anything, but continuously.

Blogging is just one small aspect of building a business and it’s challenging when you don’t know if people are reading to the end as you rarely see comments and checking for new visitors is just not time effective. Building an audience starts with many seeds and a lot of hope, crossing fingers in hopes that one blossoms and just having fun on the way.

I am so very thankful for you, yes you, whoever is reading this as you are such an important piece in the puzzle that is passion. If you haven’t already, please be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for your free copy of Blood Day the Short Story and to stay connected.

If you’re an artist, of any kind, you want followers on Facebook and any other social media site you’re on so that you can network and understand who you’re reaching and when. Your audience, although it’s fun to see your numbers grow on social media, should all be connected through a newsletter so you can ensure you have a personal connection with your fan, just in case you leave a social networking site for whatever reason.

As an author, you can build your audience by asking for reviews on book seller sites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble and it’s free to do!

Thanks for reading and making this possible,

Sarah Butland